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In comparison to other artforms, live music was attended by a greater proportion of the Australian population (57 percent vs. 38 percent for theatre and dance and 37 percent for visual arts and craft).

However, live music goers attend less frequently than visual arts attendees with 13 percent of people attending monthly compared to 17 percent for visual arts.

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Attendance across all music categories has remained stable since 2009. Musical theatre, classical music and opera are attended by significant numbers in 2013, but ‘Other live music’ (such as rock, pop, country, dance etc) was still the largest genre within the live music category being attended by 39 percent of all live music attendees.

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Frequency of music attedance has remained stable since 2009. In 2013, Opera and new classical were attended the least of the music genres overall. However, new classical was attended most often with 15 percent of people attending monthly. Opera and musical theatre had the lowest proportion of monthly attenders at 4 percent and 5 percent respectively.

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Attendees of music events are significantly younger than attendees of other arts events (68 percent being aged 15 to 24 years).

Popular music audiences are significantly younger than other music audiences. Popular music audiences were generally in the 15-24 age group (84 percent), while many classical music audiences were aged 65 years and over (42 percent).

Live music audiences were more likely than other arts audiences to use the internet at almost all stages when attending a music event.

Popular music attendees were more likely than attendees of opera, classical music and musical theatre to use the internet at various stages of their attendance journey. For example, musical festival attendees were more likely than other music attendees to engage in online word of mouth before (42 percent vs. 28 percent) and after the event (53 percent vs. 37 percent). Meanwhile, opera attendees were less likely than other music attendees to engage in online word of mouth both prior to (16 percent vs. 28 percent) or after an event (18 percent vs. 34 percent).

While opera attendees were also less likely to further enrich their experience by accessing online images and video before or after the event, they were more likely than other music attendees to have an interest in being able to do this (29 percent vs. 13 percent after the event).

Figure 30 - Use of the internet at each stage of the 'attendance journey' - arts attendees and live music attendees

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Most of those involved in music industry work are live performers. In 2007 over 250,000 people performed music live, and a further 80,000 worked in another music-related role. The radio sector involved over 100,000.

The growing numbers of unpaid performers suggests that engagement in music is strong – despite no growth in the number of professional musicians.

A 2005 National Review of School Music Education[1] reported that just 14.6 percent of year 12 students participated in music in 2004 – well below participation in other artforms such as general art/visual art/craft and performing arts/media.

Analysis at that time suggested that growth in music participation had not kept pace with growth in the number of students over time – with the participation rate falling from 16.4 percent in 1991 to 14.6 percent in 2004. Over a similar time period, participation in the performing arts grew from 24 percent in 1992 to 36 percent in 2004.

In NSW, more recent figures suggest that Year 10 music enrolments may be continuing on a downward trend, dropping from over 7,300 in 2010 to below 6,800 in 2010.

[1] It is difficult to provide a reliable indication of music participation in the education system across Australia – largely due to different approaches to data collection across States and Territories.

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The Music Education Review noted high attrition rates in music participation in schools – with many students dropping out of music-related activities between Year 3 and Year 12.

A separate survey of 1,000 Australian households found the early teenage years to be the most vulnerable time when people stop paying their instruments, with 30 percent of lapsed players dropping out by age 12 and a further 30 percent by age 15.